Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
in G Major, BWV 1048
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

THE STORY

   By 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach had been the kapellmeister at Cöthen for four years—and he was not feeling particularly fulfilled in his job. Having received some mild praise for his music from Christian Ludwig, a Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt in Germany, Bach took it upon himself to put in what could be seen as an informal “job application.” He packaged up six concertos, which likely had been written years earlier, and sent them off to the Margrave along with a groveling note of dedication—“begging Your Highness most humbly not to judge their imperfection with the rigor of the fine and delicate taste that the whole world knows Your Highness has for musical pieces…” (and on and on). 
   For all of Bach’s humility in this note, the concertos—which became known as the “Brandenburg” Concertos—are now widely regarded as some of the most perfect orchestral compositions of the Baroque era. The Margrave did not offer a job (he didn’t even respond to Bach) and the concertos were entirely unknown until they were discovered in 1849 and published the following year.
   The “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3 is unique among the set in that it was composed for nine solo strings—three each of violins, violas, and cellos—plus continuo. The spotlight shifts around the ensemble throughout the peppy and fast-paced work.

LISTEN FOR

• A driving melody passed among the soloists in the first movement
• Two simple chords that serve as a transition between the movements; in these performances, a cadenza on solo violin is performed over these chords 
• In the second movement, the occasional use of dissonance to build tension 

INSTRUMENTATION

Strings, continuo